


The Liars in the World

by still_lycoris



Category: Through the Dragon's Eye
Genre: Animal Death, Fear, Gen, Pre-Canon, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24167617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Morris likes to live a quiet life but changes are about to bring his world crashing down ...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The Liars in the World

**Author's Note:**

> A continuation of my headcanon that Charn was a Keeper before he was Charn ...

Morris hated it when people fought.

It was always just _nasty_. People shouting, getting cross, all the sulking afterwards ... it was awful. He liked it when everything was quiet and normal and you were allowed to just get on with things the way you liked to. When there was a fight happening, you felt like you couldn’t do anything at all. You had to just stand there, being awkward, even if you hadn’t actually done anything to begin with.

This fight had actually been between Doris and Horris, which wasn’t entirely surprising. Doris was always a bit prickly and lately, Horris had been prone to get angry about everything. Doris had been giving them a lecture about cleaning the house better and suddenly, Horris had been yelling at her and then Doris had yelled back and Boris and Morris had just had to stand there, staring awkwardly at the floor. Doris and Horris had always sniped at each other and even sometimes blown up but never like this. It had been so loud and horrible and even though it was stupid, Morris had almost been scared.

In the end, Boris had interrupted. He’d grabbed Doris’s arm, announced loudly that they were going for a walk and pulled her outside. Which had ended the argument but left Morris alone with a furious Horris. And the thing was, even though Morris knew it was ridiculous, he couldn’t help being a bit nervous of Horris when he was angry. If he were honest, he was a bit nervous of Horris when he _wasn’t_ angry. Horris was always so very ... _there_. He filled the room in a way that Morris admired – or did when Horris wasn’t filling it with anger, anyway.

Horris had at least gone quiet when Doris and Boris had left. Not still though. He was pacing up and down and Morris didn’t dare say anything to him. He just huddled back in his chair and carried on knitting, although he’d rather lost track of what it was supposed to be. That was all right, it was for Boris and Boris was always cheerful about whatever Morris gave him. Doris could get grumpy if it wasn’t just right and Horris ...

He shivered, then realised it wasn’t just because of the thought of Horris’s temper. It was getting cold in the Veetacore House all of a sudden, as though the sun had gone behind a cloud, even though it was streaming through the windows. It had kept happening lately, for no reason as far as Morris could tell. He thought he heard a crackling noise for a moment and twitched, wondering what it was.

“Cold, Morris?”

He jumped. He hadn’t expected Horris to say anything to him. Horris had turned towards him and was smiling but Morris couldn’t help feeling that it was a very odd smile. Which was silly, how could a smile be odd? Perhaps it was because he didn’t remember Horris smiling at much for a while, which was sad when you thought about it.

“Yes, a bit. Are you? Do you want a rug or anything?”

“No. I’m fine.”

Horris sounded a little strange too. He was staring at Morris now, his head tilted slightly on side. Morris couldn’t say why, but he suddenly felt uneasy. He got to his feet, automatically looking around for his pets, as he always did whenever he felt nervous. There were four at the moment. He could see Flicker and Flit, his little bats hanging up in the corner and Frull, a larger snail was crawling peacefully near the Veetacore. He couldn’t see Frenda, the other snail. Normally, he wouldn’t have worried but recently, so many little pets had vanished. The others didn’t seem to really understand why it was so upsetting. Morris knew that all of his pets had to go eventually. He looked after them until they were big or strong and then let them go quite happily. But this was different. Little ones had vanished, ones that were too small to be on their own. Parts of families had vanished and they weren’t supposed to split up. Morris didn’t understand it and he didn’t like it. There was something wrong and the others didn’t seem to really care.

“Frenda?” he called, trying to keep his voice light. “Are you here, little one?”

He peered under the table, just in case she’d crawled there and when he stood up, he saw the puddle on the chair.

There had been a lot of puddles lately. It was one of the reasons Doris was mad about the cleaning. She thought they were spilling things on purpose just to annoy her. Morris was pretty sure that he wasn’t – he certainly hadn’t handled anything that was this pink. It looked a little like the colour of Frenda and Frull’s shells – 

He felt cold again suddenly; a different type of coldness this time that seemed to be coming from inside him. Slowly, he reached out and touched the puddle. It felt warm. As though only a few moments ago, it might have been alive ...

“H-Horris ...?”

Horris was standing right behind him, his arms folded. He was drumming the fingers of one hand on his arm, an almost compulsive motion. He was smiling and this time, Morris could see that it was a horrible smile.

“Is there something wrong Morris?” he whispered.

“Did ... did you ...?”

“Spit it out, Morris. Come on. You can do it.”

For some reason, Morris found himself staring at the drumming fingers. Horris’s fingers had never been that long before. He knew it. He’d measured them for gloves more than once. They had been shorter then, less pointed.

Horris was changing.

He wasn’t supposed to change.

“You did something,” he croaked. “You ...you’ve been hurting my pets.”

And Horris _laughed_. He laughed with a horrible delight and Morris found himself shrinking back against the table. He felt cold again, so cold that he couldn’t stop himself shaking.

“I don’t think it hurts them,” Horris said when he had finished laughing. He sounded reflective. “They don’t make any sounds of pain. They just ... melt into those little puddles. Which doesn’t really change most of them that much does it? It’s not as though they are _intelligent_ ... ”

“I ... you can’t ... you can’t just ... ”

“Yes I can. I can do anything I like. You have no idea, Morris. You’re content, aren’t you? Your pointless little life, _knitting_ and finding creatures that are stupider than yourself so you can pretend that you are doing something useful raising them into bigger stupid creatures. You’re absolutely nothing. And the others are barely better. Boris who thinks every problem can be solved by throwing a ball at it and Doris who thinks that controlling _us_ gives her life meaning. But me? I’ve found something _so_ much better! Do you know how wonderful this feels? I can do _anything!_ ”

He was pacing again, moving roughly up and down. He suddenly thrust out his hand towards Flicker and Flit and as Morris stared, horror-struck, a flicker of green lightning launched from his fingers. Flicker took flight with a cry but Flit dripped down the wall in a horrifying brown smear. 

Morris screamed. He couldn’t help it. He reached up and Flicker shot into his hands, huddling there as Morris stumbled back, trying to get in the way of Frull before Horris could do anything else. Horris was laughing again.

“Oh Morris. Morris, Morris, Morris. Scared, Morris? Trying to protect your precious pets? But what will you do if I threaten to do it to you?”

“You ... you wouldn’t,” Morris said. “You _couldn’t_ , you ... you ... ”

Horris couldn’t, could he? It was awful enough to do it to the pets but to do it to _Morris_ , to do it to him, Horris wouldn’t, would he? 

“We’re _friends_ ,” he said but he didn’t even need to see the sneer on Horris’s face to know that the argument wasn’t going to win. Horris _wasn’t_ his friend. Horris couldn’t be his friend, not if he’d done all this. And if they weren’t friends, if Horris didn’t care about him, what would stop him doing this? What would stop him from turning Morris into a puddle on the floor?

“Please,” he said and he knew that his voice was shaking. “Please, Horris, please. You can’t, you ... please ... ”

“I can,” Horris said. “I can do anything I want. Now Morris, let us see who you really are. Will you step aside? Or will you stand there and melt away like all of your precious little ones?”

Morris felt as though he was already melting. His legs were barely holding him up. He could feel Flicker shuddering in his hands, could feel Frull gently lipping at his shoes the way she did because she was always friendly, she liked to play and be petted, she’d go to Horris happily because she’d think he wanted to play and then –

“Please,” he whispered, not able to say anything else. “Please, please, Horris, stop, it’s not funny, please, please ... ”

“Step aside,” Horris said.

“ _Please_ Horris, _please_ – ”

“ _Move!_ ”

And was green lightning at the end of Horris’s fingers, horrifying bright green lightning and Morris couldn’t breathe, he didn’t want to turn into a puddle, he didn’t, he was so scared and he wanted to move, he did, he would have given up because he was so _scared_ , but he couldn’t make his body do anything now, he could only stand there and he was going to – 

Then the green lightning was gone and Horris made a funny little _woof_ noise and stumbled forward and Morris saw Doris and Boris standing at the door, faces fixed with horror, Boris still standing in his bowling position and Morris heard the thud of a cricket ball hitting the floor and realised what Boris had done.

“What’s _happening?_ ” Doris shouted and she sounded just like herself, like she could make everything go back to normal with her own will. 

But Morris, crouching on the floor to cuddle Frull and Flicker close, could see the puddles which had been Frenda and Flit and he knew that nothing was ever going to be the same again.


End file.
